A man called in, near the end of the hour. He said he had been taken his kids to the theater, and the kids movie they were waiting to see had a very long line. Brokeback Mountain was also showing at that theater. He said he sat near the ticket booth for 35 minutes, as his kids waited in line to buy tickets for their movie.

During that 35 minutes he never heard one person buy a ticket for Brokeback Mountain. However, during that 35 minutes, the SOLD OUT sign came on for Brokeback. Out of curiosity, he went in to the Brokeback theater, and only saw 4 people in there. The theater manager refused to comment when the man questioned him.

Is this how all those theaters are getting such high attendance for Brokeback? Imaginary theater goers?

Perhaps other theater goers can investigate for themselves this weekend.

I can only vouch for the fact that this man called in a related the story as I presented it here, not if its true. Callers can make up stories too. It peaked my interest though.

My observations would have been relatively mundane - what is very clear to me is the economic growth that is going on in the United States. The American economy is booming. The obvious sign of this boom may come as a surprise - traffic. Even in the suburbs I was visiting, the traffic, particularly to and from shopping centres was horrific. It did not matter if it was a weekday or weekend, but the amount of people out on the roads with their cars going shopping had increased visibly since the last time I'd been there.

This indicates confidence, this indicates money to spend, this indicates economic activity near to bursting at the seams.

Regards, Ivan

56
posted on 01/06/2006 3:52:43 PM PST
by MadIvan
(You underestimate the power of the Dark Side - http://www.sithorder.com/)

Because it showed how he straightened himself out. IMO it could have been better if they highlighted more of what he did after he straightened himself out. It showed how coming from nothing you could make something of yourself and overcome drinking and drugs.

Box Office receipts are very hard to manipulate because all the studios get the same numbers. If one tried to pad its totals the others would cry bloody murder. It's as accurate as these sort of things get actually. (compared to stuff like record sales and Nielsen ratings anyway)

Go to Boxofficemojo.com.......it lists each movie with daily running totals....BBM doesnt even rate as a mole on the balls of a mouse. The big story (Scam) is actually that the movie has "grossed" less than 20 million dollars..thats dollars not people...People are not seeing the movie despite proclaimation of it being a "Cultural Phenom"!

Actually, when Passion of the Christ was released and selling like hot cakes, there was more than one instance of a moviegoer reporting paying for it, getting a ticket to another movie and being told not to worry about it by management...

That thought occurred to me as well. And someone knowledgable about the movie industry commented on one of those threads that this is sometimes done because of some financial incentive to the theater owner. It's better to show high attendance on certain movies than others, apparently.

So, I suppose, if the Brokeback Mountain distributor is giving a bigger cut to the theater owner (most theaters are owned by huge companies), they may be putting Brokeback Mountain tickets in the slots for other films like Narnia. This cheats the Narnia distributor and benefits the Brokeback Mountain guys. But they can't risk getting caught by selling more tickets than they have seats, so they put up a sold sign when they run out of tickets.

I don't know anything about the business. I am just basing this on comments on a thread about The Passion of the Christ.

I belonged to the IAM-AW for 15 years (one of very few women in my local). Most of the guys I worked with wouldn't be caught dead going to see "Brokeback Mountain", no matter how much the Union leadership would try to encourage them.

Also, most of the rank and file in my local were good solid conservatives.

I'm just not interested in seeing it, but I love the works of screenwriter Larry McMurtry. The director Ang Lee is really uneven. But I don't like the actors or the subject matter so I won't be seeing it. This has been a rotten movie year for me, and I've gone to the theater rarely, my lowest movie attendance since I started going to movies.

83
posted on 01/06/2006 4:02:51 PM PST
by Darkwolf377
(The first and great commandment is: Don't let them scare you. --Elmer Davis)

Re#74 Thanks for the expansion on what may be going on. What I would love to see is some investigative reporting where somebody interviews surprised moviegoers that were misled into thinking they were simply seeing a Western. That would be a hoot...

85
posted on 01/06/2006 4:03:32 PM PST
by eureka!
(Hey Lefties and 'Rats: Over 3 more years of W. Hehehehe....)

Ang Lee makes tedious, watered down, middlebrow piffle. This movie looks like more of the same along the lines his 'The Ice Storm' all from the devilish spawn of ersatz pseudo art like 'Ordinary People'.

It seems to me that theatre owners are businessmen and I cannot even imagine they would post a "sold out" sign guaranteeing no sales at all. These people typically don't ensure expenses greater than revenues.

94
posted on 01/06/2006 4:09:05 PM PST
by HawaiianGecko
(Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.)

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